


"thanks for being an ear or whatever"

by jellyfishes



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-21
Updated: 2012-09-21
Packaged: 2017-11-14 17:38:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/517817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellyfishes/pseuds/jellyfishes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Young Harold,” Nick says. “There are many things you must learn. And one of them is not to hook up with a random the first time you go out clubbing on the gay scene.”</i>
</p>
<p>Harry has a gay crisis and Nick helps him through it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"thanks for being an ear or whatever"

“I think Aimee is getting ideas,” Nick says, leaning back against the lumpy couch of the booth they’re squeezed into. One hand is curled around the neck of a bottle of bear and the other is fiddling with the array of fancy buttons on another one of Rita’s outrageously coloured jackets that she manages to pull off. “Not that I don’t condone and endorse it. Usually Aimee’s ideas are fantastic.” He’s grinning wickedly at Harry, who rolls his eyes, draining the last of his beer and letting the bottle join the rest of the empty glasses on the table.

He can tell Harry hates _ideas_ , when they’re the kind of ideas that usually end in him having an awkward conversation with someone in which he tries to explain exactly what has happened when really he has no idea. And Nick knows this, and he revels in making Harry feel awkward, because really, what else is he supposed to do with a kid who seems to have made himself Nick’s young protégé who he’s expected to guide through life and the ways of the world.

Nick isn’t really sure why Harry picked _him_ of all people, especially considering he’s not the best kind of influence, what with the staying out late and drinking himself into reckless abandon whenever he has the chance to, which he really shouldn’t because he’s not eighteen anymore and his hangovers seem to get a little worse every time.

He turns to look at Aimee who is chatting to a pretty young blonde at the bar and the two of them are laughing together far too comfortably for people who met five minutes ago when Aimee went to get another round of beers, but that’s just how it is with Aimee and always has been. Nick remembers meeting her for the first time three years ago when her hair wasn’t so bloody orange. She sat down next to him at some kind of meet and greet where he was interviewing one of her co-stars and offered him a bite of her apple if she could have a sip of his red wine and who was he to turn down someone he could see himself being friends with for the rest of his life if her taste in blue lipstick was anything to go by. Why did Nick always end up friends with women who felt the need to paint their lips and nails in matching colours and why is he only realising that this is a recurring pattern in his life _now_?

“She looks like she’s smiling far too widely for this to be completely innocent,” Harry says, frowning in a way that makes his eyes crinkle a little bit at the sides and Nick laughs.

“It’s never really completely innocent with Aimee, though, is it young Harold?” he replies and Rita grins, reaching across the table and pinching Harry’s cheek.

“The girl at the bar is cute though, isn’t she Harry?” she asks and Nick sighs because it’s true, the girl at the bar is stunning and completely Harry’s type, tall and blonde and leggy with high cheekbones and who is he kidding, that’s every guy who has eyes’ type.

Harry sighs and Nick can tell he wishes he didn’t finish his drink a few minutes ago because he is looking for something to do with his hands and Nick has always been observant, so he doesn’t think Rita’s noticed how awkward Harry seems to be feelings. “Why do all of Aimee’s plans involve me and some pretty blonde?” he grumbles and Nick laughs.

“Hey!” Rita says, “I’ve never been part of Aimee’s plans, are you saying I’m not a pretty blonde?”

Nick rolls his eyes as Harry blushes and stutters over an apology and he doesn’t think he’s ever seen anyone so fucking awkward around women. “Honestly Rita, you’re a horrible woman,” he says and pats Harry on the back. “It’s fine love, she’s only joking,” he says and Harry scowls, probably sick of being the butt of everyone’s jokes, but it just happens that way when he’s the baby of the group. He gets everyone looking after him all the time, but they’re not adverse to teasing him either. “Besides,” he continues, turning to Rita, “when we first introduced the two of you, _Rita and Harry_ was part of Aimee’s grand scheme.”

Rita laughs a beautiful high peel of laughter then as though it’s the funniest thing in the world and Harry mutters something about how no one ever takes him seriously and Nick smiles at him fondly because _Rita and Harry_ would never have worked now that he looks back on it, but you never do know these things going into them, do you?

She breaks off at the affronted look on Harry’s face and pouts at him. “Come on babe, you know we never would have worked.” Harry looks offended and Rita sighs. “I can never win here can I? You’re gorgeous and sweet and I’m a maniac,” she says, but Harry isn’t having a bar of it and Nick laughs at him, ruffles his hair in a way that makes Harry shy away from him with a smile trying to break through the forced frown on his face.

Aimee reappears a moment later, her arms cradling four bottles of beer and waving to the blonde at the bar. She lets out a breath as she sits down. “Turns out the bird at the bar is more interested in thirty year old red heads than young, beautiful pop stars,” she says and Harry lets out a relieved laugh.

“I hate it when you try to set me up with someone everywhere we go,” he grumbles. “I don’t need your help getting laid. I have _no_ trouble getting laid when I want to get laid.”

Nick grins and turns to look at Aimee who shrugs. “Hon, trust me, I’m trying to live vicariously through you. It’s not like I can go out and hook up with random guys anymore, so I’ve got to make sure someone out of us is. Nick’s not had a shag in about a year and Rita is far too aloof and secluded – ” Rita makes a noise of protest at that and Nick hushes her, nodding along with Aimee. “ – it’s true!”

“You’re honestly a menace,” Nick says, shifting along the seat to squish up next to Harry who leans into him a bit, like he’s relieved that Nick will look after him and make sure the two girls won’t get too carried away in their incessant need to help Harry out with his love life.

“Thanks,” he says quietly as Rita shows Aimee how to flip the top off a beer bottle using her unnecessarily expensive lipstick and Nick smirks because Aimee gets really girly around Rita and gets interested in things like make up and squealing about how adorable Harry is when he tries to flirt with other women. Nick sometimes wishes he could get away with squealing too because Harry really is completely adorable when he tries to turn the charm on.

“You two,” Nick says, turning to Rita at the same time as whacking Harry on the arm repeatedly until he grabs his hand and shoves it back towards his _own_ body and makes a squawking sound that really isn’t the attractive, but manages to be cute on him.

“What?” Harry groans, clearly tired of being the ball that gets tossed around between the three of them as they have their fun teasing him and plucking at him.

“I have an announcement!”

“What, do I not get to hear this announcement?” Aimee asks in a deadpan. “Am I just not here to you? Completely invisible to anyone but hot blonde lesbians? Seriously, if I was into girls I would go for her.”

Nick rolls his eyes. “Not everything is about you Aimee, can’t I have the spotlight for one second this evening maybe?” he teases because usually he just likes to let Aimee be the leader and Harry be the follower and he slots in there somewhere in the middle while Rita flies above them all being absolutely stunning and attracting all the attention.

“Probably not,” Rita says and Aimee throws a peanut at her.

“Well, to anyone who’s listening, I, Sir Nick Grimshaw – ” Rita scoffs “ – will be taking over the Morning Show at Radio One,” he says with a grin and a flourish. “Starting on the twenty fourth of September.”

There’s silence for a moment and Nick thinks maybe he’s finally managed to stun them all because even _he_ wasn’t expecting that promotion but suddenly Harry’s dimpled grin is right up in his face before he’s being suffocated by a mass of curls and Harry’s cheek is pressed against his throat as he says, “You’re actually brilliant Grimmy, that’s awesome!” and it finally sinks in that _he’s going to be hosting the Morning Show_.

“Oh yeah, and I need the two of you to help me campaign it,” he adds quickly while everyone is still exclaiming over it as though he needs special circumstances to get them to agree to it.

“Yeah, course,” Harry says without a seconds hesitation and Rita agrees at the same time as Aimee yelps out a “Hey! What about me?”

“Ah, not famous enough my dear,” Nick says with a sigh and hand over his heart and she looks like she’s about to protest it for a minute before Rita offers to get the next round and any hostilities are lost in the prospect of more alcohol.

\---

Harry calls Nick up as soon as the add premiers on YouTube and Nick can basically _hear_ the stupid smile in his voice. “I look like a dick,” Harry says and Nick can hear rummaging in the background like someone else is in the little flat Nick and Lou helped him pick out a few months prior.

“Nonsense,” Nick says, grabbing his keys off the kitchen table and pocketing them as he sweeps himself out the door of his house and onto the street that isn’t really busy at this time in the morning. “You look adorable as always Styles.”

He hears Harry sigh and laugh a little bit. “Reckon I should _actually_ start waking you up like that,” Harry says and Nick smiles.

“I can think of plenty of ways you could wake me up that would be a lot more pleasant than that,” Nick says with a laugh because even though he doesn’t usually make those kinds of stupid innuendos with Harry considering he’s young and not quite used to Nick in full fledge yet, it’s a beautiful day and the sun is probably getting to him and mucking with his filter. Besides, Harry laughs loudly on the other end. “Listen, what are you up to now, love?”

“Er, nothing,” Harry supplies. “We’ve got the day off I think because we’re back in the studio for about a week from tomorrow.”

“Right, well, I’m off for morning coffee, so if you leave now, you can meat me in the café on Oxford, you know the one with the orange tart that you’re so fond of?”

He can pretty much hear Harry silently calculating how long it will take him in the silence that follows and he chuckles when Harry says, “Sure why not,” just as Nick turns the corner and steps onto Oxford, which is ridiculously busy compared to the quiet street he lives on.

“Can’t believe you’re not sick of me yet,” Harry says when he squeezes into the chair opposite Nick at the table he’s managed to secure despite the crowded café. There’s a piece of orange tart on Harry’s side of the table already and Harry smiles fondly at him, shaking his head before digging in. “Lou reckons you’re only hanging out with me because you feel bad all my friends are boy band members when I’m trying so hard to be a hipster.” Nick laughs loudly as Harry shakes his head. “Thanks for this by the way, you didn’t have to,” he says as he gestures to the tart.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Nick says. “Least I could do for having my fabulously famous friend bring inevitable fame and glory to the Morning Show when I start.”

“Mm,” Harry mumbles through a mouthful while Nick sips on his coffee. “You’d better have me on as a guest. I’d say at least once a month, but knowing how often I turn up at the studio these days, it’ll probably end up being a lot more.”

Nick grins at him, happy that Harry still plans on causing him trouble at the studio despite the fact that he’ll have to be up by at least six to have any hope of catching Nick while he’s there. But then again, it’s not like Harry’s really causing him trouble when he enjoys his company so much, and when the hell did the annoying presence of an eighteen year old guy from a boy band become so important to him?

“Well, that’s nice Harry, very nice indeed. You know I’d love to have you, as long as you promise to behave you little rascal.”

Harry grins that cheeky grin that he does so well and pulls his stupid grey beanie further down over his ears. “Now we all know that’s never going to happen,” he says before his phone cuts him off and he pulls it out of his pocket with a sigh. “I’ve got to go,” he says tiredly. “Zayn’s organised lunch and Perrie’s bringing one of her friends for me to meet.”

“Ooh,” Nick coos, leaning across the table on his elbows. “Sounds kinky.”

Harry shrugs and makes to stand up, Nick leaving a clatter of coins on the table along with his half finished coffee. He’d much rather walk Harry to his car and spend a little extra time with him. “People need to stop trying to set me up with miscellaneous women,” Harry sulks and Nick grins.

“You’re like our little project Harold, you can’t expect us to sit back and let you waste the years of your prime before you become old geezers like us.”

“You’re not old,” Harry mutters, looking at the ground.

“You’re too lovely for your own good,” Nick says, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek quickly before shooing him into his car with promises of _soon_ and _later_.

\---

_this girl isn’t blonde – so at least zayn’s original. I think he’s beating Aimee so far considering she still hasn’t picked up on the fact that I prefer brunettes .x_

Nick grins at the phone, looking at his watch while he waits in a flashy restaurant for an up and coming artist that he’s meant to be interviewing in five minutes. This is the part of the job that really gets to him, having to impress people by buying them an expensive lunch just to get them to talk to him for ten minutes and give him information he could have found if he’d searched for it on the internet.

Every once in a while, he hits the jackpot though and ends up getting along famously with one of them. That’s how he made friends with Rita at least, and that all turned out very well in the end.

_is she absolutely lovely then?_

He scans the wine list while he waits for a reply or for his guest to arrive, whichever comes first and is distinctly put off by the lack of originality on the menu.

_she’s talking with her mouth full…x_

Nick laughs just as the girl he’s meant to be interviewing arrives and she looks nervous, but he shoves his phone back into his pocket before standing up and greeting her with a warm handshake and gesturing for her to take a seat. “How are you today, lovely?” he asks and she smiles widely, and yes, she’s gorgeous, he could see her going far.

“I’m great, thanks,” she says. “I’m Liv, by the way.”

“Just Liv?” he teases and she smiles.

“For the sake of the name on the album, yeah.”

He gestures for her to take a look at the menu while he pulls his phone out to quickly tap out a reply to Harry and he really shouldn’t text while he’s on the job, but he hates to leave a text from Harry unanswered.

_throw your water in her face and storm out of there. preferably while someone plays a dramatic music piece, do you think you can make that happen?_

He turns back to the girl who’s supposed to be commanding her attention, but really, at the moment seems much more interested in the array of foccacias that Nick is definitely going to end up paying for. “So love, tell me about yourself,” he says.

\---

“You’re here far too much,” he says when Harry appears on a Tuesday night when Annie is the only other person in the studio and it’s reached the point where Nick can just play whatever the hell he wants on the radio because it’s pretty unlikely that anyone is listening closely enough to care.

“Is that a complaint?” Harry asks just as he slides into the chair next to Nick and the song finishes with a drum solo that could definitely be better and Nick makes a hushing sound as he names the song and introduces the next one before swivelling around on the new and improved spinning chair to face Harry.

“Course not Harold, you know I love having you about the place to try and screw me up in front of the thousands of listeners out across England.” Harry grins mischievously, flicking one of the buttons on the control panel that starts up a jingle that he flicks off almost immediately with a sheepish expression.

“Sorry,” he says with a blush and Nick is just about to scold him but he can’t stay mad at that face, so he settles on an affectionate eye roll instead.

“Like I said,” Nick says. “Thousands of listeners.”

Harry grins and scoots a bit closer to Nick. “Come on mate, you know as well as I do that anyone who’s got the radio on at this time is only listening to is as background music while they fuck or fight so that the neighbours don’t hear.”

Nick snorts and his chair spins backwards a little bit because he really didn’t think Harry had it in him but it’s probably true if he’s honest with himself, which he usually manages to be. “You’re actually a horrible person,” Nick says.

Harry ignores him. “Can I introduce the next song?”

“No.”

“Please?” he asks and he’s got that stupid whiney voice on that Nick finds so bloody impossible to resist. “I’ll tell you why I’m here if you let me,” he says and Nick is really curious and Harry knows that and he’s using it against him for sure.

“Why are you here?” Nick demands.

“Need to talk to you,” Harry says.

“About what?”

“Well,” Harry says and it’s slow and drawn out and what’s the bet he doesn’t even get out a full sentence before the song ends and Nick will have to let him announce the next one if he wants to hear what Harry has to say. “How did you know you were gay?”

Oh, Nick thinks as the song ends and he scrambles for his headset, pulling it on just in time to ramble off the details of the artist again. He’s struggling to really form words at all because is Harry really asking him what he thinks he’s asking him for the reasons that he suspects him to be because that really came from nowhere and he wasn’t expecting it at all. “A-and now we have an fabulously anonymous guest who is going to announce the next song,” Nick says, scribbling down the name of the song and the artists with a blunt pencil and shoving it across to Harry while the curly haired fucker pulled the mic towards himself.

“Hi everyone,” he says in that slow drawl and Nick is suddenly pissed off because Harry definitely did the whole dramatic interval between his question and the time Nick would have to wait before answering on purpose. “The next song we have for you is by a new artist who I’m sure will absolutely smash it. This is Investment by Liv, just Liv.”

“What in God’s name, Harry?” Nick demands as soon as the first bars of the song start up and Jesus, is he glad that this is a fairly long song and he can just go right ahead and play another one right after it to give them as much time as possible for the major interrogation that is about to occur. Usually Nick is pretty good at not being that nosy when it comes to other people and the things that he’s not involved in, but this is Harry and for some reason he cares a lot more than usually and it’s probably just because he’s protective of him, because it’s not like he’s that well versed in the ways of the world.

“Pretty simple question,” Harry says and he’s mumbling now, so he’s obviously suddenly gotten extremely nervous and self conscious about the question and Nick realises he’s done a terrible job of handling this so far.

“Sorry love, you took me by surprise is all,” Nick says sliding his chair over to pull Harry into an awkward hug. “Now, why don’t you try asking me that again while I’m not about to go live to thousands of people fucking or fighting all over England.”

Harry giggles and shit, that giggle really gets to Nick with how adorable it is. “I just…I wanted to know because I was like, just – wondering,” Harry finishes lamely and Nick takes pity on him and cuts him off.

“Who’s the lucky guy?” he asks because he remembers when he first thought a guy was fucking hot, and was almost ready to bust his way out of the closet straight away, but he didn’t even realise he was properly gay until a few years later.

“What? It’s – no one,” Harry says, blushing. “It’s…guys. Plural. In general. For a pretty long time now.”

Nick raises his eyebrows at that because he really expected this to be a on-a-whim thing that Harry would be over in about a week, but if he’s been nursing this for a while now, it’s probably a bit more serious than that and he takes a deep breath and gets ready to be the kind of life coach that Harry properly needs. “So,” Nick says. “You think you might be gay?”

Harry nods. “I think it’s all those women Aimee and Rita tried to set me up with. Turned me off them for good I suppose.” Nick lets out a loud laugh because he can’t believe Harry is so comfortable with it that he is joking about it already. It took Nick a good year to find anything funny about the fact that he was attracted to guys because it scared him so much. Then again, Harry has always seemed to not give a single shit what other people think of him, and he’s pretty comfortable in himself as a person. Maybe he just skipped the part of growing up where other people’s opinions were ingrained into him.

“You are truly something else Harry Styles,” Nick says as he flicks on another song to start playing as soon as the one by Liv finishes. “It’s a good thing,” he adds when he sees hurt flicker in Harry’s eyes for a second.

“I just…can’t tell people, you know?” Nick nods. “But I knew you wouldn’t care.”

“Of course not young Styles, your secret’s safe with me.”

“I mean, you can tell Aimee and Rita. Maybe it’ll get them off my back. Though…I don’t want them to start trying to set me up with random guys either.” Nick laughs and Harry scowls at him, sitting back in his chair as he lets Nick talk for a couple of minutes, tell some random anecdote that he can barely feel himself saying. Half the stories he tells on this show are completely made up anyway. It doesn’t really matter. As Harry said earlier, no one is really listening when it gets past midnight, so he doubts he’ll get called up on it.

“I’ve got to get going,” Harry says, pushing his chair back when Nick puts the next song on. “We’re in the studio early tomorrow. But thanks for being an ear or whatever.” He’s gone back to being deliciously awkward and Nick stands up to wrap him in a proper hug, without the awkward chair angles.

“Always Harry. Are you popping in for the last show on Friday?” Nick asks and Harry nods.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

\---

“So, I think it’s time to stop setting Harry up with an endless stream of blonde women,” Nick says when he pops over to Aimee’s house for dinner. Rita is already there, which shouldn’t be that surprising considering how close the two of them have been of late, but their friendship still makes Nick feel weird because he was the one who introduced them apprehensively given that he thought the two of them had no hope in hell of getting along with each other.

“Why?” Rita whines as she paints her nails in a ridiculous pattern that Nick is sure has taken her hours already.

“Grimmy, just because you’re jealous of the beautiful blonde women who actually have a chance of getting a piece of Harry doesn’t mean you have to act like the bitter old man that you are.”

“What the hell is that meant to mean?” Nick asks and he’s genuinely confused and misses the look that Rita and Aimee pass between them over the bench in the kitchen that Aimee is standing behind, dipping the sautéed chicken skewers in peanut sauce. He shakes his head and sighs. “Look, we’re just going to ignore whatever the hell was just implied and focus on the now.”

“And what piece of news are you going to attempt to drill into our heads now?” Aimee asks.

“Did Harry put you up to this because we know he hates it when we meddle, but it’ll be good for him in the long run,” Rita adds and Nick groans.

“No, Harry didn’t put me up to this. Well, he did. But not in the sense of ‘make Rita and Amy stop picking on me’ and more in the sense of ‘hey Grimmy, would you mind passing on the message’.” He runs a hand through his hair and messes up his quiff and wonders why the hell he let Harry talk him into being the one to break the life changing news to Rita and Aimee. “Harry’s gay.”

There’s a beat where no one says anything and then, “I know this really cute blonde boy who works with Pixie,” Aimee says and Rita instantly dives on it and Nick groans again.

“Would you two just lay off for one second?” he asks and Aimee says, “Sure, dinner is ready anyway. Grab plates, we can discuss potential dates at the table.”

“Okay so this blonde boy,” Rita says as she slides into a spot at the head of the table.

“He’s gorgeous – ” Aimee starts before Nick interrupts her.

“Harry doesn’t even _like_ blondes!” he cries and both women raise their eyebrows.

“You’re so fucking jealous Grimshaw it’s actually ridiculous,” Rita says and Nick splutters for a moment before resigning himself to at least five minutes of teasing and hoes into his chicken. Besides, it’s not even like he’s jealous at all, he’s just relaying information, just like what Harry told him back in the studio two days earlier.

By the time he’s finished his first skewer of chicken, Aimee and Rita have progressed from cooing at him to acting out a conversation between Harry and himself that involves a lot of talk about sucking each other’s cocks and Nick has definitely had enough.

“Seriously?” he asks. “You two are such children.” The stop and glare at him. “Usually it’s a magnificent quality and makes me feel not so stupid about the fact that I am constantly childish and spending my time with people at least five years younger than me. Right now, it’s annoying the crap out of me.”

“Because it’s true,” Aimee says, but is subdued by the look Nick gives her.

They’re on their second bottle of wine and it’s about midnight when Nick’s pocket vibrates. He’s tempted to ignore it but it could be Pixie who he’s been trying to get in touch with to drop into his last night show.

_lou reckons beimf gay is super progersisve of me, still dnt know if it was a goog idea to tell ihim .x_

Nick rolls his eyes and pockets his phone, though really, it’s always fun to text someone when they’re drunk to find out how far you can push them, but it’s Harry and everything about Harry has always been a little bit different for him. He treads more carefully.

“I think Harry would give really good blow jobs,” Rita exclaims suddenly and Nick nearly chokes on the sip of wine he’s just taken. Aimee reaches across the couch to pat him on the back tenderly, a horrible smirk plastered across her face and God, Nick wishes he just had normal bodily reactions to the stupid things that come out of Rita’s mouth.

“ _What_?” she asks. “We’ve all seen his lips. They’re luscious. If I were a guy I would stick my – ”

“I beg you not to finish that sentence,” Nick croaks out, still trying to regain function of his vocal chords and Rita shrugs, pursing her lips.

“I’m just saying.”

“Well _don’t_ ,” Nick says. “Harry is…”

“Yours?”

Nick rolls his eyes. “Fuck off you loveable whores,” he says, pushing himself off the couch. “I’m grabbing a cab home Aimee, thanks for the delicious feast.”

Aimee makes grabby hands at him until he shuffles over to her and kisses her and Rita in turn before leaving the flat and taking the three levels of stairs down to the main street that he should be able to get a cab from at this time of the night.

\---

“That was okay, right?” Nick asks as he leaves the studio with Harry after his last show late night style. There are girls there, of course, considering he announced Harry as a guest and they need security to get out of there alive, but Harry, Nick and Aimee pile into Harry’s car and pull out of there as quickly as they can without anything going too wrong too quickly.

“Was what okay?” Harry asks, turning to look at the road as he pulls up to a busy intersection.

“Take the next right to drop me at my place, thanks kiddo,” Aimee says from the backseat and Harry nods.

“I mean, the coming out joke,” Nick says and Harry turns to him wide eyed. “Eyes on the road you twat,” Nick scolds and Harry laughs, that stupid giggle again. Nick sighs and Aimee smirks and Nick sighs again at that and tries to ignore the weird feeling that he’s getting like there’s something he’s trying to suppress that he doesn’t even know is there.

“Yeah, that was fine,” Harry says. “I don’t care Grimmy.” Nick has always liked the way Harry says his name. It’s unthinkably adorable and he wriggles around in his seat a little and tries not to think about the way Aimee is watching him like a hawk.

“Can we kick the giggling dipshit in the backseat out onto the sidewalk?” he asks and Harry laughs.

“I’m not a dipshit!” Aimee squawks from the back seat and Harry laughs again. “Next right sweetheart,” she says, unbuckling her seatbelt as Harry pulls up in front of her driveway.

“See you later,” Harry says and Aimee leans forwards, smacking pink lipstick on each of their cheeks before clambering out of the car.

“Be good boys, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

Nick watches as Harry blushes and pulls back out onto the street a little too quickly and that makes Nick blush too. “To your place?” Harry asks and Nick nods quietly, fiddling with the radio. “Gonna be weird not having your voice to drive home to when I’ve stayed at Louis’ until late,” Harry muses quietly and Nick doesn’t really know what to say to that, so he doesn’t say anything at all, just sits back against the car seat and closes his eyes and tries not to think about the fact that he has all these feelings that he doesn’t know what do with and can’t figure out at all.

“You want to come in for a drink?” Nick asks when Harry pulls into his driveway, right behind his shitty car that he can’t bring himself to replace because he never uses it anyway, not when he has rich and famous friends to drive him around all the time.

Harry shrugs. “Sure, I’ve fucked myself over sleep wise anyway so I’m going to be dead in the studio either way.”

Nick glances at his watch and sees it’s well past midnight, which isn’t that much of a surprise considering his eyes are starting to hurt in the way they do only when it approaches the early hours of the morning.

“So I was wondering if maybe we could talk more,” Harry says when Nick flops onto the couch next to him with a glass of red for each of them because honestly, if there’s one thing he can educate Harry Styles in, it’s quality of wine. That and music, but he figures that’s a bit of a lost cause considering Harry is already in an international pop band and how the hell did he end up friends with this kid?

“’Course love, what’s on your mind?” Nick asks, lifting an arm for Harry to squish under. He pulls Harry closer to him and feels his heart flutter but pushes that feeling the fuck down because it’s really not appropriate to be feeling those kinds of things for lovely young Harry who probably hasn’t even thought about kissing a male yet.

“Well,” Harry says and he sounds uncertain, so Nick rubs his thumb in tiny circles where Harry’s shirt ends on his arm. “I just…I mean, I’m a little bit…” He stops and takes a deep breath. “I think I need to like not be a virgin anymore,” he says quickly and Nick raises his eyebrows because that’s not what he was expecting and he’s heard Harry talk about all of the girls he’s fucked before, so he really doesn’t get it.

“Uh – ”

“I mean, not a _virgin_ virgin, but I’ve never had sex with a guy before so I’d really like to…do that. Probably. So I know what I’m doing and – yeah.”

Nick tries to think of any way to take this other than a proposition and he really can’t. “Are you asking me to – ”

“Oh, fuck, no,” Harry says quickly, pulling away from Nick a bit as though to cement the point that he isn’t asking Nick to fuck him. “I meant, where can I find someone who’ll fuck me?”

Nick feels an irrational surge of something rise up in him and he’s not sure if it’s protectiveness or jealousy or what, but he sighs and tells Harry he’ll get him on the list for his favourite gay clubs next weekend as long as he can act as chaperone and as long as he lets Nick work out the route of destinations so that they don’t get papped.

“And you can’t hook up with anyone on that night,” he says finally.

“But that’s the whole point!” Harry says and he looks scandalised, the way his brow is all crinkled and his mouth is frozen open to look like he’s just yelled “WHA-?” in that stupid accent of his. Nick laughs and ruffles Harry’s hair again, which has become less of an affectionate thing and more of a not exactly sure why he’s doing it anymore thing. He contemplates pressing a kiss into Harry’s curls – decides against it.

“Young Harold,” Nick says. “There are many things you must learn. And one of them is not to hook up with a random the first time you go out clubbing on the gay scene.”

Harry frowns but seems to accept Nick’s answer. “So you’ll take me?” he asks and Nick nods.

“Of course I’ll take you,” he says and Harry stands up, stretching out. Nick thinks he hears his back pop.

“I’m going to head home,” Harry says. “I’ll lock the door behind me, okay?” Nick nods. “I’ll see you soon,” he adds before swooping down and kissing Nick quickly on the cheek, which is weird because usually it’s Nick doing the cheek kissing, or initiating it at least, but shit does it give him mad butterflies, so much so that he can’t even bring himself to reciprocate the gesture, to even process it until he hears the door shut behind Harry.

“Fuck,” Nick whispers into the dimly lit lounge.

\---

When Nick gets back from America, he is expecting Aimee at the airport because he texted her the day before asking her to organise some sort of lift back to his flat because there’s nothing worse than having to rely on a cab. But Harry is there, and Rita and Aimee are nowhere to be seen.

“Hey!” Harry says over the yelling that always seems to go on in an airport. He pulls Nick into a warm hug. “Missed you,” he breathes, and then, “I got you a trolley for your bags, come on.”

Nick doesn’t really know what to make of the fact that Harry is here to pick him up from the airport with his bright eyes and smile that he reserves only for Nick, but he’ll definitely take it. “You want to just head back to yours?” Harry asks and Nick nods.

“You’re staying for a while though,” he says. “Least I can do is cook you dinner for your troubles.”

“It was no trouble,” Harry says, but when they get to Nick’s place, he scrambles out of the car anyway and follows Nick inside like he belongs there and Nick really wishes he did.

“I’m crashing,” Nick grumbles halfway through their first movie and Harry’s head is kind of lolling onto his shoulder a lot more than it usually does. “You tired love?”

“Mhmm,” Harry mumbles.

“I’ll make up the couch for you,” he sighs, making to shift Harry off so he can grab some pillows and blankets but by the time he comes back, Harry is halfway to his bedroom.

“Sleeping in with you,” Harry calls out behind him and Nick just sort of lets the blankets he was holding fall to the floor as he trails after Harry into his bedroom with a sigh.

“You’re actually despicable, Styles,” Nick grumbles as he pulls off his jeans and slips into bed next to Harry who wastes no time in cuddling up to his side, forcing Nick to wrap an arm around him if he wants to be at all comfortable.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Harry says, but Nick can only really pay attention to the way Harry’s lanky limbs are brushing against his, one of his ankles hooking over Nick’s calf. Nick only spares a minute to wonder why the hell he’s only paying attention to this kind of thing now that he knows Harry’s gay because they’ve cuddled a lot before, and it was always totally fine then. Sometimes they’d wake up with their legs completely entangled and Nick would just extract himself from the pile of legs and arms in the morning to shower, grumbling about Harry sleeps like a bloody limpet, clinging onto anything he can. Nick sighs at the feeling of Harry’s breath tickling his neck and tries not to notice it’s giving him goosebumps as he falls into sleep. Fails.

When Nick wakes up, Harry isn’t in bed with him anymore and he figures he’s left early, gone to the studio earlier than Nick thought he would, so he rolls over in bed, is completely attacked by the smell of Harry on the other side of his pillow and wow, as if that isn’t the creepiest thing he’s ever noticed.

“Want a cuppa?” he hears and rolls over and there’s Harry in nothing but his boxers and one of Nick’s grungy t shirts and Nick is suddenly hit with how fucking attractive Harry is, but that’s just the shirt thing, right? Everyone is always attracted to other people when they’re swanning around in their clothes.

“You offering to make one or is this going to be one of those things where you say ‘good, go get us one’?”

Harry laughs, crawling up onto the bed with the two cups of tea that Nick somehow didn’t see before and handing one to Nick. “I made them you dolt,” he says and sits down cross-legged opposite Nick, waiting anxiously for him to take a sip.

Nick smacks his lips together and sighs. “You’ve always made the best tea Harold.”

“I’ve got to head off,” Harry says. “I’m taking this shirt hostage though, I don’t think I can quite get away with the same one twice in a row.” Nick laughs and gestures his hand around as though to say it’s fine, but he’s still sleepy and refuses to get out of bed to walk Harry to the door, no matter how adorable he looks when he shimmies himself into his skinny jeans.

“I’ll see you later, love,” Nick says. “Annie and I are interviewing you at iTunes.”

“Well, I’ll probably speak to you before then,” Harry says, leaning down to place another kiss on Nick’s cheek and he’s ready for it this time, manages to kiss him back before he’s out the door.

Nick calls Rita.

“Hello darlin’ what’s going on?” she yells into the phone and she sounds like she’s somewhere busy, maybe the tube.

“Rita, I have a big, huge problem.”

\---

Nick gets a call from Harry at about midday on the day of the iTunes fest. “Harry Styles from One Direction?” he says into the phone. “What on earth could such a pop star be doing calling me?”

Harry laughs but it sounds stressed. “I’m really sorry,” he says quickly and Nick frowns.

“Are you apologising in advance for something? Must be serious,” he says.

“No, no, nothing bad. I – well, it’s annoying.”

“Spit it out love, I haven’t got all day, I’ve got this festival to go to where I’ll be interviewing some washed up boy band, you know how it is.”

He gets a proper laugh out of Harry for that one and gives himself a mental pat on the back for knowing what will make Harry feel better. “Song got leaked,” he grumbles and Nick gets it straight away because that must be awful, working so hard on something and then it all falling apart because someone was too inconsiderate to keep it to themselves.

“I’m sorry Harry,” he says and Harry sighs.

“It’s okay,” he says. I just didn’t want you to be too upset because I know you were meant to be premiering it, you know?”

“Oh, I don’t mind too much about that,” Nick says. “Just so long as you’re not too stressed about it all.”

“Yeah, it’s okay, I just wanted to call and let you know,” Harry says. “I’ve got to go talk to a radio station about it or something. I’ll see you later this afternoon.”

“Sure, see you then,” Nick says, trying to stop himself from adding ‘love’ onto the end of that sentence because he really needs to stop calling Harry that if he wants to maintain the fabulously platonic relationship they have going on.

“Oh, give it a listen,” Harry says. “I want to know what you think.”

The phone clicks as Harry hangs up and Nick is instantly on his laptop, finding the video. He watches it about ten times before Annie shows up at the door with the car for the two of them.

\---

_goodluck this morning .x_

Nick closes the phone as soon as he opens the text because sure, Harry may not be coming in to the show to be there on the first day, but he has still set his alarm to wake up at three in the morning and wish Nick good luck and that is just too much for him when he’s desperately trying to not be attracted to this boy.

The whole morning actually goes fantastically and despite the nerves, Nick’s proud of himself when he walks out of the studio at nine and into Aimee’s waiting car.

“I can’t believe I had to find out about your pining heart from _Rita_ ,” she says with a frown. “What ever happened to me being the one you came to first about everything?”

“Sorry sweetheart,” Nick says. “You know I’ll always love you best.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep dear,” she says with a smile and Nick sighs, leaning his head back against the seat of the car and letting the radio fill his brain until the pull up at the restaurant where they’re meant to be getting brunch.  
“How many bloody people are here?” Nick asks as they step inside because there’s a table up the back that looks like it’s got about fifteen people there already. And Harry’s there, sitting next to Pixie, playing around on her phone.

“Rita organised it and we all know how carried away she can get,” Aimee explains and Nick sighs, weaving his way through the tables.

“Hello darlings!” Nick says, making his way around the table and giving everyone a kiss on the cheek before falling into the seat in between Rita and Harry and well, that’s probably not a good idea, but he’s been up since three and is past the point of caring.

“Get my text this morning?” Harry asks as he scans the menu and Nick nods.

“I didn’t want to reply in case you’d already gone back to sleep, but thanks love,” he says and Harry smiles.

“As much as I’m enjoying the lingering stares between the two of you, I think it’s about time we ordered,” Rita says loudly and everyone laughs as though the whole world knows about the bloody lingering stares and Harry blushes, so Nick puts a hand on his knee to soothe him, just like he always does, but it seems a bit more loaded now with half the people at the table watching the gesture.

The whole affair is loud and messy and Nick is pretty sure he has egg yolk in his quiff by the time they’re all done but he can’t bring himself to care when Harry has been sitting next to him the whole time laughing that delicious laugh that sounds like some kind of ridiculous squawk but still manages to be absolutely perfect.

“Want a lift home?” Harry asks and Nick shrugs.

“I’m sure Aimee will refuse to drive me now that you’ve offered, so that would be great,” he says and Harry laughs as he stands up, brushing the crumbs off his jeans and waiting for Nick to make the rounds and say an animated goodbye to every single person there.

Harry’s new song plays when they’re in the car and Nick sings alone obnoxiously for as long as he can before Harry gets fed up and turns it off, rolling his eyes at Nick. “Oh, come on love, it’s a great song!” he says and Harry laughs, finally.

“Do you really like it?” he asks and Nick nods, because he _does_.

“It’s a lot better than the stuff on your old album, really great stuff Harold. You can tell the other boys I said that too.”

“What you mean and tell them about the secret friendship I have with a guy old enough to be my dad?” Harry teases and Nick groans and reminds himself that it’s true, he’s a lot older than Harry and it would never work between the two of them.

“You’re a horrible person,” he says as he gets out the car, waving enthusiastically as Harry drives off down the street.

_we’re going out tomorrow night, i don’t think ive been drunk with you since you dropped the huge news_

He hits send and waits for Harry’s text of agreement before he climbs into bed for a nap. It’s been a big morning.

\---

“Thought we were going to go to a gay club,” Harry whines as they finally hop into a taxi together at the end of the night.

“I told you we needed to save that for a Saturday love, that’s when it’s pumping,” Nick says, shuffling forwards on the seat to direct the tai driver towards his place. “By the way, you’re staying at mine,” he says and Harry nods from where he has his face pressed into Nick’s neck.

It’s incredibly difficult to get his key in the door when Harry is all floppy and draped over him as he tries to stay upright and he just looks so adorably sleepy that Nick pushes him straight into the bedroom and pulls his shoes off before hurrying back out to lock the front door and grab some water for the two of them. He honestly expects that by the time he gets back to his room, Harry will be out cold and that’s probably what’s best for both of them because he really doesn’t think he can look at those cloudy eyes for a second longer before he lays one on Harry’s gorgeously pink lips.

But no, Harry is sitting up against the headboard when Nick gets back into his room and he sighs, pulling off his jeans so that he matches Harry in just a shirt and boxers and climbs up onto the bed with him, handing him the glass of water. “Thanks,” Harry says, his voice all rough and scratchy from yelling over everything in the club. “You’re literally a life saver.”

Nick nods and sits back against the headboard next to Harry, letting the water cool his throat which is aching a little from the yelling.

“Can I tell you something?” Harry asks and Nick murmurs a kind of “Mhmm,” in agreement.

He turns to look sideways at Harry who looks like he’s facing some internal battle behind his eyes.

“I really want to kiss you right now,” he says finally, turning to look at Nick as he speaks and Nick’s mouth goes dry, which is probably not what he wants it to be doing when Harry Styles is asking to kiss him.

“Oh,” Nick says and his eyes flicker to Harry’s lips, and he’s just licked them so they’re all shiny and inviting, but, “Harry, I would love you to do that – ”

“I sense a ‘but’ coming.”

Nick laughs. “But I want you to remember it in the morning.”

“I will!” Harry says and he looks scandalised that Nick could think so little of him. “I’m not that drunk, you tosser.”

“Well, how about this,” Nick says. “If you remember in the morning, you can kiss me then.”

Harry sighs and nods, cuddling up to Nick in that position he loves to much, with his limbs wrapped around Nick’s body in a vice grip.

“You want to kiss me,” Harry mumbles as they fall into sleep and Nick can literally hear the delighted smirk in his voice.

\---

Harry doesn’t remember in the morning. Nick comes out of his room to a full fry up of bacon and eggs and Harry is an apron that says ‘Kiss the Cook’ and Nick would really, really like to, but he’s not going to do that to Harry when he doesn’t even know if last night was an ‘I like you’ thing or a ‘I’m drunk and horny’ thing.

“Thanks for looking after me last night,” Harry says as he scrapes some of the slightly burnt bacon onto a plate for Nick. “I must have been like, really pissed.”

Nick laughs, shaking his head. “You’re fine Harry, I may be old and grey, but I still remember the good old days when I didn’t know how to handle my alcohol.”

Harry snorts into his tea. “You’re not that old you fucking idiot,” he says and Nick smiles fondly at him.

“I appreciate it Harry. I may be old, but I’m not _that_ old at least.” He grins at the younger man who rolls his eyes and digs into his food. “You’re going to have to skedaddle after breakfast, I’m afraid,” he says. “Mum’s popping round to take me shopping.”

Harry nods and stands up to collect his other clothes. Nick tries desperately hard not to watch the way Harry walks as though he’s got weights tied to his feet, but it’s so endearing and he can’t really look away.

“See you later love,” he says as he opens the door for Harry.

“Yeah, later,” Harry says before he stops to wrap his arms around Nick in a warm hug. And then, “I’m going to kiss you now by the way,” he says before he leans back just enough to connect his lips with Nick’s for just a moment. It’s short and soft and Nick barely has time to press his lips back before Harry is pulling away completely, grinning with those stupid dimples and slipping out the door towards his car.

Nick manages to at least close the door before he slides down against the wall. “Oh okay,” he says to himself, because he really needs that to happen again and also probably to know that Harry meant it.

\---

_come over .x_

Nick sighs and unlocks his phone so he can reply, kicking his feet up onto his coffee table.

_I’ve got work tomorrow love, sorry_

He tops up his glass of wine and sets the bottle back on the table as his phone buzzes again.

_im coming to you .x_

“Door’s open!” he calls out to Harry when he rings the bell and Harry sort of stumbles into the lounge room and chucks his keys onto the table before flopping onto the couch next to Nick and reaching for his glass of wine.

“Yeah, just make yourself at home then,” Nick says and Harry grins, passing the wine back to him.

“I know we didn’t like, talk about the other morning,” Harry says and Nick nods.

“No, we definitely didn’t. Though you know, I wouldn’t mind if you laid one on me and then sauntered off into the distance more often,” Nick teases and Harry rolls his eyes, blushing.

“Well I was sort of hoping that might be the case,” he says and Nick has had a bit of time to think about this over the past few days and he thinks that he might be somewhere on the way to being in love with Harry and he really likes the sound of what Harry is saying.

“Is this all a part of your gay crisis then?” Nick asks with a grin. “Kissing old men a few times to make sure it’s the gender you’re after?”

Harry looks offended, but not too much. “You’re not old,” he says. “And this isn’t part of any crisis. I didn’t even have a crisis!”

Nick laughs and pats Harry’s cheek. “I know love, I’m only teasing.”

“Well can you stop?”

“And why might that be?” Nick asks and he’s grinning so wide it actually hurts.

Harry answers him with a kiss rather than an explanation and that’s definitely okay by Nick because the kiss the other morning was great and all, but he’s been wanting more ever since. And the slide of Harry’s tongue against his is actually better than he imagined it to be, which is saying something because he’s spent a lot of time imagining it.

“Your kissing skills are far beyond your years young Harold,” Nick says when they finally pull away for air. Harry’s lips are a little red and puffy and Nick is secretly pleased that he’s the one who’s made them that way and he hopes his look the same, wonders if Harry is proud too.

“Thanks!” Harry says with an over-exaggerated smile and Nick can’t help but kiss him again.

\---

Harry wakes him up at three with his lips wrapped around his cock and Rita was right, Harry’s lips are to die for and Nick thanks God that this kid is gay because it would have been a sin to let these lips go to waste when they’re made for sucking dick.

“Shit Styles,” he mutters. “You sure you haven’t done this before?” but he can’t speak much when Harry opens his throat for him and swallows around the head of his cock.

It’s too much, the fact that it’s _Harry_ between his legs and sure, he’s had better blowjobs, but not by far and Harry’s enthusiasm makes up for any lack of technique that might be there. Technique will come with time and Nick tries to focus on what Harry is doing with his mouth, but there’s his tongue and his lips and the sucking and it’s all too much all at once.

Nick comes with a quiet gasp and Harry splutters around him as he tries to swallow.

“You’ll get used to it,” Nick, grinning when Harry clambers up the bed to kiss him.

“Hope so,” Harry says with a grimace, cuddling into Nick’s side.

“Come here love.” Nick wraps an arm around Harry and pulls him closer, kissing him at the same time as reaching for his cock with his spare hand. “I told you there were better ways to wake me up than with your one man band.”


End file.
